LIBERTY: The “Pay Farmers Not To Grow Stuff” Tax

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/magazine/22wwlnlede.t.html
?pagewanted=1&ei=5070&en=3b8480bb7549490b&ex=117
7992000&emc=eta1

http://tinyurl.com/2ofeky

You Grow
by Michael Pollan, a contributing writer, is the Knight professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. His most recent book is “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.”
Published: April 22, 2007

***Begin Quote***

Such changes are radical only by the standards of past farm bills, which have faithfully reflected the priorities of the agribusiness interests that wrote them. One of these years, the eaters of America are going to demand a place at the table, and we will have the political debate over food policy we need and deserve.

***End Quote***

I never did understand why we pay non-farmers to not grow stuff. It just seems counter intuitive. And, like most “price supports”, it’s yet another hidden tax on the poor. Sigh!


LIBERTY: Separation of School and State

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

http://freekeene.com/2007/04/05/
incramental-steps-to-privatize-education/

http://tinyurl.com/yod4jf

Separation of School and State
Filed under: Essay, Issues, Personal Freedom — toby
at 8:38 pm on Thursday, April 5, 2007

***Begin Quote***

There are a myriad of quotes like this one, and if one is to look at what public schools have done to this country they would see the blueprint was effectively put into place, and is still in effect today. There is a reason that public schools are the final plank in the Communist Manifesto. When governments take the responsibility of education away from parents they are able to indoctrinate children with whatever propaganda and misinformation they want to. Since the government took control of education, the Constitution has been all but decimated, but the public schools still teach children that the government operates under the Constitution, after all ~ the government can do no wrong.

***End Quote***

Well, like most things that Gooferment does, it’s impossible to unravel. A Gordian knot of interlocking and overlapping interests. It’s hard to cut to the heart of the matter.

There is here in Nu Jerzee a deadly embrace that prevents change. And, the politicians benefit most from it.

The biggest problem to change the status quo is the Teacher’s Union. They are big, well-funded, and energized to “protect” their turf. They make no bones about proving on any issue that they are the 800# gorilla. (And, just as ugly!)

So we have large and vocal Teacher’s Union protecting turf, contributing to politicians, and working for their friends and against their enemies. The Union interests may be different from those of individual teachers. By being in the mob, the individual teachers must be held to account for the Union’s positions.

So we have Politicians, Unions, and Teachers.

Also in our mindmap of “public education”, schools have the principals, bureaucrats, custodians, contractors, consultants, lawyers also “interested” in continuing the current paradigm.

Also in our mindmap, we have to recognize that there are suppliers, construction companies, lawyers, architects, and others that “feed” off the current paradigm.

On the “paying side”, taxpayers are property owners and income tax payers. Lottery players to some extent pay an extra tax for “education”.

When I was in the Hands Across New Jersey tax revolt against Governor Florio’s “toilet paper” tax (It covered more than that, but that was the icon of the tax highlighted by the protestors!), we knew that the schools were the key to tax reduction. It took decades to get into this mess and people don’t know any other way to educate children than have the gooferment do it.

In order to change from “public education” to a “private education” paradigm, we need to shift paradigms. this is a horrendous task. But I think we can by several techniques.

(1) We have to convince the people that (a) gooferment skoolz are an establishment of religion. [First Amendment] (b) property taxes are discriminatory against those who have no children. [Fourteenth Amendment] (c) there is a conflict of interest between unions and their support of politicians.

(2) We have to offer a way out. I’d suggest that we separate “Government Runs Skoolz” from “Government Pays for Education”.

(3) We have to prevent any expansion of the Government’s intrusion into every day life. [Small Government every time no excuses!]

imho


LIBERTY: Stossel on “skoolz”

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfRUMmTs0ZA

What a joke!


GUNS: Guns bad; loopholes bad; politicians dumb!

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070424/D8ON5A500.html

Va. Gov. Looking at Gun-Buyer Loophole

***Begin Quote***

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) – Virginia’s governor said Tuesday he may be able to close the loophole that allowed Seung-Hui Cho to buy the guns he used to kill 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus. In 2005, a court had ordered psychiatric counseling for Cho after determining he presented a danger to…

***End Quote***

Time and attention might be better spent restoring the student’s Second Amendment rights.

How did we ever get to such a sad state of affairs?


LIBERTY: unenumerated rights — those rights the Founders felt no need to specify in the Bill of Rights — Yours!

Monday, April 23, 2007

http://vtcommons.org/node/741

Remembering the 9th Amendment
Submitted by Rob Williams on Mon, 04/23/2007 – 1:38pm.

Thanks to “Alternet” for this important book review.

The “Silent” Ninth Amendment Gives Americans Rights They Don’t Know They Have
By Daniel A. Farber, Basic Books
Posted on April 23, 2007, Printed on April 23, 2007

 

***Begin Quote***

What a pity. Even more, what a terrible oversight: the Ninth Amendment bears directly on such modern-day constitutional issues as abortion, the right to die, and gay rights.

The Ninth Amendment is key to understanding how the Founding Fathers thought about the liberties they expected Americans to enjoy under the Constitution. They did not believe that they were creating these liberties in the Bill of Rights. Instead, they were merely acknowledging some of the rights that no government could properly deny.

The history of the Constitution reveals the purpose of the Ninth and the Founders’ intent: to protect what constitutional lawyers call unenumerated rights — those rights the Founder assumed and felt no need to specify in the Bill of Rights. Unenumerated rights include, for example, the right to privacy. In the America of today, unenumerated rights account for freedoms like a woman’s right to abortion. …

***End Quote***

So the next time any politician talks about a “right”, remind them that the Constitution reserves it to the people and he should shut up!


GUNS: Victims were helpless in the face of a …

Sunday, April 22, 2007

http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2007/tle414-20070422-06.html

What An Individual Chooses To Do, They Are Responsible For
by Curt Howland

 

***Begin Quote***

Bad people can even kill some 3000 others in one action using only little knives and airplanes. And like the students and teachers at Virginia Tech, the passengers and crew on those airplanes were helpless in the face of a few little knives, because they were disarmed.

***End Quote***

think this catches the essence of the problem. A gun is the equalizer. By prohibiting them, the Gooferment is condemning you to death. If then the Gooferment can remove enough guns from the civil society, then they can start the death camps with impunity. What ARE you gonna do about it? With what — bare hands?

When they come thru my door to take away Fat Old White Guys, they may lose one or two thugs. If that happens a few times, then they may have a hard time recruiting thugs.


LIBERTY: Knock off Catholic schools

Sunday, April 22, 2007

http://www.lewrockwell.com/ostrowski/ostrowski82.html

You Are Cordially Invited to a Guerilla War
by James Ostrowski

 

***Begin Quote***

The government school system is finally beginning to realize its original mission: to knock off Catholic schools. The nuns and brothers had fought the good fight for 150 years. Without reinforcements, Catholic schools, with one-half of all private school students, are in deep trouble.

***End Quote***

I am amazed that parents send their children to public school. Thirteen years later, they “graduate” and you won’t know them. Where do they pick up the drivel? Yup, gooferment skool.

Have a conversation with one of them and you won’t believe your ears.

Some can’t form a coherent sentence. Others have no idea of math, history, or science. And, politics? Don’t even go there.

It’s all very sad and doesn’t portend well for us as a nation, a society, or as people.


LIBERTY: “illegals” will still pour through.

Friday, April 20, 2007

http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2007/
tle413-20070415-02.html

http://tinyurl.com/22lhld

Immigration and Integrity
by L. Neil Smith

***Begin Quote***

You could station a sentinel along every mile, and “illegals” would still pour through. Add to that the Pacific coast, the border with Canada, and the imaginary line all these antis focus on, between Mexico and the United States, and eventually it will dawn on you that the only way to keep America secure is by (A) abolishing the welfare state, (B) enforcing the Second Amendment, and (C) running a strictly non-interventionist foreign policy. Every one of those measures is sensible and easy, but they’re career-enders for politicians and their hangers-on.

***End Quote***

I don’t see separating the Gooferment from Education and honest money.

Maybe it’s in there somewhere. I’m sure LNS would get to it soon after polishing off the other three! ;-(


LIBERTY: Fight back

Thursday, April 19, 2007

http://article.nationalreview.com/
?q=MjdiNzFkMDNlOWE3MjY4YTVk
OGIzMTcwMjVhMGFhMDA

http://tinyurl.com/2ao3y4

 

April 18, 2007 12:00 AM
Wanted: A Culture of Self-Defense
Enough is enough.
By Michelle Malkin

***Begin Quote***

Enough is enough, indeed. Enough of intellectual disarmament. Enough of physical disarmament. You want a safer campus? It begins with renewing a culture of self-defense—mind, spirit, and body. It begins with two words: Fight back.

***End Quote***

Why are guns are the litmus issue?

Scratch a politician, hear what they say about guns, and you know EXACTLY where they stand on ALL liberty issues. Ask anyone that one question. You’ll know exactly how they stand on any other issue. Taxation, free speech, regulation, welfare, and on and on.

It’s the one question that “separates the men from the boys”.

Real men and women take responsibility for themselves. No “barbara streisand”. No excuses. No whining.

The children run to Mommy Gooferment and Father State to make all the bad bogeymen to go away.

A gun is not a talismen to prevent bad things from happening. Nor is it a magic wand to make all bad people to run away and hide. It doesn’t cure cancer, the common cold, or all the illnesses of the world.

Unrestricted gun ownership — with concealed or open carry — makes everyone safer! Sprinkle a few sheepdogs in the herd of sheep. And, then the bad guys are guessing.

It just seems so obvious to me!


LIBERTY: Cabbies to face fines for refusing fares

Thursday, April 19, 2007

tiny

http://tinyurl.com/2p8oju

MN: Cabbies to face fines for refusing fares
Minneapolis Post-Bulletin

***Begin Quote***

“The operator of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Monday approved tougher penalties for cabdrivers who refuse service to travelers carrying alcohol — a policy that will affect hundreds of Muslim drivers. On a unanimous voice vote, the Metropolitan Airports Commission agreed to rules that will suspend a driver’s airport taxi license for 30 days the first time the driver refuses service and revokes the license for two years after the second violation. … Some Somalis who testified Monday urged commissioners to reject the new penalties and find some other solution. ‘We see this as a penalty against a group of Americans only for practicing their faith,’ said Hassan Mohamud, an imam — or Islamic religious leader — and an adjunct professor at William Mitchell College of Law.” (04/17/07)

***End Quote***

The problem is the gooferment. Do we really need them at airports telling us which tax to take? Can’t we leave anything to the free market?